in the
This revolution appeared to break out spontaneously, without any real
leadership or formal planning. Russia had been suffering from a number of
economic and social problems, which were compounded by the impact of World War
I. Bread rioters and industrial
strikers were joined on the streets by disaffected soldiers from the city's
garrison. As more and more troops deserted, and with loyal troops away at the Front, the city fell into a state
of chaos, leading to the overthrow of the Tsar.

The February Revolution was followed in the same year by the October
Revolution, bringing Bolshevik
rule and a change in Russia's social structure, and paving the way for the USSR.

Wounded Russian soldiers retreating from the
front

The revolution was provoked not only by Russian military failures during the
First World War, but also by public dissatisfaction with the way the country was being run on the
Home Front by Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna of Hesse and
Tsar Nicholas's ministers. The economic challenges Russia faced fighting a total
war also contributed.
In August 1914, all classes supported and virtually all political deputies voted in favour of the war (despite calls from
"defeatists", including Lenin of the Bolshevik party, that it was not a war worth
fighting). The declaration of war was accompanied by a wave of jingoism and flag-waving, which served to effect a
temporary moratorium on internal strife. After a few initial victories, such as in Galicia in 1915 and with the Brusilov offensive in 1916, the Tsar's
armies were confronted with a number of very serious defeats. Nearly six million
casualties had been accrued by January 1917. Mutinies sprang up more often (most due to simple war
weariness), morale was at its lowest,
and the (newly called up) officers and commanders were at times very
incompetent. Like all of the major armies, Russia's armed forces suffered from
inadequate supply. The pre-revolution desertion rate
ran at around 34,000 a month. Meanwhile, the wartime alliance of industry, Duma and Stavka (Military High Command) started to work outside
of the Tsar's control.
In an attempt to boost morale and to repair his own reputation of being a
weak ruler, Nicholas announced in the summer of 1915 that he would become the
new Commander-in-Chief of the army, in defiance
of almost universal advice to the contrary. The result was disastrous on three grounds. Firstly, it associated the monarchy
with the unpopular war; secondly, Nicholas proved a poor leader of men on the
front line, often irritating his own commanders with his interference; and thirdly, whilst at the front, he was
unavailable to govern. This left the reins of power to his wife, the German
Tsarina Alexandra, who was unpopular and accused of being a spy and under the
thumb of her confidant Rasputin, himself so unpopular that he was
assassinated by the nobility in December 1916. The very assassination drove another wedge between monarchy and country over
whether or not his death required grieving or celebration. Regardless, the Tsarina proved an ineffective ruler
in a time of war, announcing a rapid succession of different Prime Ministers and
angering the Duma. The lack of strong leadership is illustrated by a telegram from Octobrist
politician Mikhail
Rodzianko to the Tsar on 11 March [O.S. 26 February] 1917,
in which Rodzianko begged for a minister with the "confidence of the country" be
instated immediately. Delay, he wrote, would be "tantamount to death".
On the home front, a famine was looming and commodities were becoming scarce as a
result of problems with the overstretched railroad network. Meanwhile, refugees
from German-occupied Russia came in their millions. The Russian
economy, which had just seen one of the highest growth rates in Europe, was blocked from the
continent's markets by the war. Though industry did not collapse, it was put
under considerable strain and when inflation soared, wages could not keep
up. The Duma (lower house of parliament),
composed of liberal deputies, warned Tsar Nicholas II of the impending danger
and counselled him to form a new constitutional government, like the one he had
dissolved after some short-term attempts in the aftermath of the 1905 Revolution. The Tsar ignored
the Duma's advice. Historian Edward Acton argues that "by stubbornly
refusing to reach any modus vivendi with the Progressive Bloc of the Duma...
Nicholas undermined the loyalty of even those closest to the throne [and] opened
an unbridgeable breach between himself and public opinion." In short, the Tsar no longer had the support of the military, the nobility or
the Duma (collectively the élites), at the same time as the legitimacy of
the monarchy with the Russian people was at a low ebb. The result was
revolution.

Events

Protests

Putilov workers protesting in the
streets

At the beginning of February, Petrograd workers began several strikes and demonstrations. On 7 March [O.S. 22 February],
workers at Putilov, Petrograd's largest industrial plant,
announced a strike. Although some clashes with the Tsar's forces did occur, no one was injured on
the opening day. The strikers were fired, and some shops closed, resulting in
further unrest at other plants.
The next day, a series of meetings and rallies were held for International Women's Day, which
gradually turned into economic and political gatherings. Demonstrations were
organised to demand bread, and these were supported by the industrial working
force who considered them a reason for continuing the strikes. The women workers
marched to nearby factories bringing out over 50,000 workers on strike. By 10 March [O.S. 25 February],
virtually every industrial enterprise in Petrograd had been shut down, together
with many commercial and service enterprises. Students, white-collar workers and
teachers joined the workers in the streets and at public meetings. In the streets, red banners appeared and the crowds
chanted "Down with the German woman! Down with Protopopov!
Down with the war!"
To quell the riots, the Tsar looked to the army. At least 180,000 troops were
available in the capital, but most were either untrained or injured. Historian
Ian
Beckett suggests around 12,000 could be regarded as reliable, but even these
proved reluctant to move in on the crowd, since it included so many women. It
was for this reason that when, on 11 March [O.S. 26 February], the
Tsar ordered the army to suppress the rioting by force, troops began to
mutiny.

Tsar's return and
abdication

The Tsar had returned to his frontline base at Stavka on 7 March [O.S. 22 February]. After
violence erupted, however, Mikhail Rodzianko, Chairman of the Duma, sent the Tsar a report
of the chaos in a telegram (exact wordings and translations differ, but each
retains a similar sense):

The situation is serious. The capital is in a state of
anarchy. The Government is paralyzed. Transport service and the supply of food
and fuel have become completely disrupted. General discontent is growing...
There must be no delay. Any procrastination is tantamount to death.

—Rodzianko's first telegram to the Tsar, March
11 [O.S. February
26] 1917.

Nicholas' response on 12 March [O.S. 27 February],
perhaps based on the Empress' earlier letter to him that the concern about
Petrograd was an over-reaction, was one of irritation that "again, this fat
Rodzianko has written me lots of nonsense, to which I shall not even deign to
reply." Meanwhile, events were unfolding in Petrograd. The bulk of the garrison
mutinied, starting with the Volynsky Life Guards regiment. In
addition, the Cossack units that the government had come to rely on for crowd
control, began to show signs that they supported the people. Although few
actively joined the rioting, many officers were either shot or went into hiding;
the ability of the garrison to hold back the protests was all but nullified,
symbols of the Tsarist regime were rapidly torn down around the city and
governmental authority in the capital collapsed – not helped by the fact that
Nicholas had prorogued the Duma that morning, leaving it with no legal authority
to act. The response of the Duma, urged on by the liberal bloc, was to establish
a Temporary Committee to restore law and order; meanwhile, the socialist parties
re-established the Petrograd Soviet, first created during the 1905 revolution,
to represent workers and soldiers. The remaining loyal units switched allegiance
the next day.

The Army Chiefs and the ministers who had come to advise the Tsar suggested
that he abdicate the throne. He did so on 15 March [O.S. 2 March], on behalf
of himself and his son, the hemophiliac Tsarevich. Nicholas nominated his brother, the Grand Duke Michael
Alexandrovich, to succeed him. But the Grand Duke realised that he would
have little support as ruler, so he declined the crown on 16 March [O.S. 3 March], stating that he would take it only if that was the consensus of democratic
action by the Russian Constituent Assembly,
which shall define form of government for Russia. Six days later, Nicholas, no longer Tsar and addressed with contempt by the
sentries as "Nicholas Romanov", was reunited with his family at the Alexander Palace at
Tsarskoe
Selo. He and his family and loyal retainers were placed under protective custody by
the Provisional Government.

Tradition says the Viking Rurik came to Russia in 862 and founded the first
Russian dynasty in Novgorod. The various tribes were united by the spread of
Christianity in the 10th and 11th centuries; Vladimir “the Saint” was converted
in 988. During the 11th century, the grand dukes of Kiev held such centralizing
power as existed. In 1240, Kiev was destroyed by the Mongols, and the Russian
territory was split into numerous smaller dukedoms. Early dukes of Moscow
extended their dominion over other Russian cities through their office of
tribute collector for the Mongols and because of Moscow's role as an
administrative and trade center.
In the late 15th century, Duke Ivan III acquired Novgorod and Tver and threw
off the Mongol yoke. Ivan IV—the Terrible (1533–1584), first Muscovite czar—is
considered to have founded the Russian state. He crushed the power of rival
princes and boyars (great landowners), but Russia remained largely medieval
until the reign of Peter the Great (1689–1725), grandson of the first Romanov
czar, Michael (1613–1645). Peter made extensive reforms aimed at westernization
and, through his defeat of Charles XII of Sweden at the Battle of Poltava in
1709, he extended Russia's boundaries to the west. Catherine the Great
(1762–1796) continued Peter's westernization program and also expanded Russian
territory, acquiring the Crimea, Ukraine, and part of Poland. During the reign
of Alexander I (1801–1825), Napoléon's attempt to subdue Russia was defeated
(1812–1813), and new territory was gained, including Finland (1809) and
Bessarabia (1812). Alexander originated the Holy Alliance, which for a time
crushed Europe's rising liberal movement.

Alexander II (1855–1881) pushed Russia's borders to the Pacific and into
central Asia. Serfdom was abolished in 1861, but heavy restrictions were imposed
on the emancipated class. Revolutionary strikes, following Russia's defeat in
the war with Japan, forced Nicholas II (1894–1917) to grant a representative
national body (Duma), elected by narrowly limited suffrage. It met for the first
time in 1906 but had little influence on Nicholas.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

The rank of Fiji from the poorest is 105 and fro the richest is 99 with gdp per capita using atlas method in 2003 is 2,360 $ and in other measurement such as IMF, WB and CIA measured in 2007,2007, and 2008 using nominal method
IMF.........................................WB...........................................CIA
rank/measure...........................rank/measure.........................rank/measure
88/3,824..............................73/4,097...............................94/3,710

Fiji Economy

Fiji economy depends on its innumerable
natural resources like, flora and fauna, fishing and also mineral resources. The
other factors that are important in the economy of Fiji are the agricultural
sectors, sugar industries and also the growing travel and tourism
industries.

Fiji economy is much developed in
comparison with the other Pacific island economies though it is still a
developing nation.

Import and export trades are a very important part of
the whole Fiji economy. The products that are imported here are, food,
machines and some others while the main export products from this island nation
are garments and sugar. Sugar industry in Fiji is a major part of the growing
economy of this country. Travel and tourism is another strong pillar of
Fiji economy. The countries from where most of the travelers come to
visit this beautiful island nation are, New Zealand, Australia, US and also UK.
But Fiji has some problems on the way of its economic growth also. Some
of these are, emigration problems, natural calamities, homelessness and some
others.

How to Export from FijiHow to export from Fiji is the
question regarding the trade of Fiji. Fiji has a growing economy that has export
as one of its very important part. Fiji has a number of materials and natural
resources that are very much helpful in building a strong economic backbone of
this island country.

Naturally therefore, how to export from Fiji, is a
question that has the answer regarding various aspects related to the foreign
trade, export, transportation and export materials of Fiji.

Fiji is a
central south Pacific island country, that has a number of natural resources.
Using these materials Fiji has already reached to a position that can be said
that economically stable. As a part of this economic scenario in Fiji, the field
of export and foreign trade has much contribution. Fiji has the sugar industry
as one of the main pillars of its growing economy. Sugar and related many
foodstuff are exported from Fiji. Another important export material from Fiji
is, garment. The textile industry is another important part of Fiji trade.
Moreover, the fishing industry, which earns a huge amount of foreign currency
for Fiji, is another very important part of Export from Fiji.

Infrastructure in FijiInfrastructure in Fiji is a very good
one and favorable for further growth. The infrastructure of Fiji consist of the
water supply, electricity, transportation, industries and some other factors.
Fiji gives the native people a very good infrastructure that help in further
development of the nation.

The municipalities and the government take
good care of all these matters that contribute to the well being of a country in
general.

Water supply in Fiji is one of the basic infrastructure and
this aspect of this country is well maintained and looked after. Almost all the
people of Fiji get fresh water from the piped water supply. This water supply
department is maintained by the public service department of the government. The
quality of the water that is supplied is very good.

Electricity, which
is another important part of the Fiji infrastructure, is well maintained in the
country. All most all the areas of the country has the access to electricity.
Electricity distribution and other controls are done by the Fiji Electricity
Authority. But now-a-days there are pressing need and more demand of
electricity. As a result, many other electricity producers are encouraged to
take part in this field. The main sources of Fiji electricity are, water and
diesel.

Fiji infrastructure provides very good transportation system to
the people in Fiji. Fiji has a very good road transportation system. By road all
the major cities and towns are interrelated in Fiji. Moreover, there are water
ferry system and international airport as well which are also popular mode of
transportation in this country. Fiji has many industries of which the sugar
industry is the main pillar of economy here.

Fiji Real
EstateFiji real estate has a very important part in the whole economic
web of this island country. There are a number of real estate properties, homes,
houses, resorts, hotels and many other properties for sale in Fiji. Moreover,
there are many real estate agents working either individually or with any real
estate firms in Fiji. These real estate firms and real estate agents make the
transactions related to real estate properties very easy. Fiji real estate field
is buzzing with all these aspects in the country.

Fiji real estate
properties can be found in many of the exotic locations that make the
transaction of these real estate properties very interesting. Some of these real
estate properties that are on sale in Fiji are,

Koro Seaview Estate:
This huge real estate property is located in the wonderful and exotic island of
Koro. This real estate property has a beautiful beach within it and place for
housing also. Moreover, this property is also near the Government ferry and also
the international airport. The exotic location of this beach property is really
unparalleled.

Private Garden Villa: This is a really very nice home for
sale in Fiji. This private villa has two very spacious bedrooms with bathroom,
dining and sitting rooms. All the rooms are very spacious. Moreover, this villa
is located in a very picturesque location which is an extra addition to the
overall beauty of this property.

Fiji BankFiji banks are many
and several branches. There are a number of banks that are operating in Fiji.
The most important banks of Fiji are the Reserve Bank of Fiji, Bank Of Baroda,
Colonial Fiji Ltd and many others. These banks are notable for offering a number
of services to the people here.

Fiji's industry is based primarily on processing of agricultural products,
mainly sugarcane and coconut, and on mining and processing of gold and silver.
Other major product groups are processed foods, and garments. In 2001 sugar
production fell 14% to 293,000 cubic tons, well short of previous norms of close
to 350,000 cubic tons. The government ascribes problems with sugar production to
expiring land leases, poor mill performance, high incidence of cane burning, and
cane transportation problems. Years of underinvestment in farms, sugar mills and
power, water, and transportation infrastructure have resulted in declining
quality as well as quantity. In February 2003 the Japanese rejected a shipment
of Fiji sugar because of poor quality.

The gold industry suffered due to low world market prices (below $300 oz.)
prevailing from late 1998 to mid-2002, but faces better prospects in the sharp
rise to over $370 oz. in early 2003. Gold production is concentrated in the
66-year-old Vatukoula mine operated by Emperor Mines, which calculates that the
mine will last another 10 or 15 year.

The garment industry in Fiji began in 1988, and in 2002 produced a record
value of about $150 million. In 1996, there were at least 68 garment
manufacturing factories operating in tax-free zones, earning $141 million. About
a dozen factories were closed in 2001, with a loss of 5000 to 6000 jobs, but
other operations were expanding. Garment industry exports, at $143 million for
2001, were down, however, due to disruptions in relations with customers from
trade sanctions.

Overall, the value of merchandise trade declined about 9% in 2001, and is not
expected to surpass the $557 million of 1997 or even the $532 million of 1999
until 2003. Tourism receipts were $228.9 million in 2001, an improvement on
2000, but still constrained by post-coup political uncertainties. Expensive
power, lack of trained labor, and the limited local market have also inhibited
industrial production. Overall, the value of manufacturing in Fiji, which had
declined 6.2% in 2000, increased an estimated 11.5% in 2001, but is projected,
by the IMF, to have increased only 1.5% in 2002, with non-sugar manufacturing
down .9% in value.

Fiji Agriculture

Agriculture, which was once a major stronghold of Fiji’s economy, now
comprises only 8.9% of the nation’s GDP. More than three-quarters of all Fijian
households used to engage in agricultural-related activities, but now many of
those workers have switched over to the growing service industry.Sugarcane is Fiji’s most important agricultural industry, accounting for over
one-third of all of Fiji’s industrial activity. Indigenous Fijians own most
farmland and local residents of Indian ancestry farm it and produce about 90% of
all sugarcane, which is then processed into raw sugar and molasses in the Fiji
Sugar Corporation, which is predominantly owned and run by the government. The
European Union is the largest export market for Fiji’s sugar.
Coconut and copra (the dried meat of the coconut) are also important
agricultural products that are widely used and exported from Fiji. There was a
ban on exporting copra until 1998, and since then a new copra-buying company has
emerged, raising the price of copra considerably. Fiji also grows and exports
bananas, pineapples, watermelons, cereal, rice, corn, ginger, cocoa and tobacco.

Fiji closeup map (not included: Ceva-i-Ra in the
southwest and Rotuma in the
north

Fiji's location in Oceania

Fiji, MISR image NASA.

Fiji is a group of volcanicislands in the South Pacific, lying about
4,450 km (2,775 mi) southwest of Honolulu and 1,770 km (1,100 mi) north of New Zealand. Of the 322 islands
and 522 smaller islets making up the archipelago, about 106 are permanently inhabited.
Viti Levu, the largest island,
covers about 57% of the nation's land area, hosts the two official cities (the capitalSuva, and Lautoka) and most other major towns, such as Ba, Nasinu, and Nadi (the site of the international airport), and contains
some 69% of the population. Vanua
Levu, 64 km to the north of Viti Levu, covers just over 30% of the land area
though is home to only some 15% of the population. Its main towns are Labasa and Savusavu. In the northeast it features
Natewa
Bay, carving out the Loa peninsula.
Both islands are mountainous, with peaks up to 1300 m rising abruptly from
the shore, and covered with tropical forests. Heavy rains (up to 304 cm or
120 inches annually) fall on the windward (southeastern) side, covering these
sections of the islands with dense tropical forest. Lowlands on the western portions of each
of the main islands are sheltered by the mountains and have a well-marked dry season favorable to crops
such as sugarcane.
Other islands and island groups, which cover just 12.5% of the land area and
house some 16% of the population, include Taveuni southeast off Vanua Levu and Kadavu Island, south off Viti Levu (the third and fourth largest islands
respectively), the Mamanuca Group (just off Nadi) and Yasawa Group (to the north of the Mamanucas),
which are popular tourist destinations, the Lomaiviti
Group (just off Suva) with Levuka,
the former capital and the only major town on any of the smaller islands,
located on the island of Ovalau, and the remote Lau Group over the Koro Sea to the east near Tonga, from which it is
separated by the Lakeba
Passage.
Two outlying regions are Rotuma,
400 km to the north, and the uninhabited coral atoll and cayCeva-i-Ra or Conway Reef, 450 km to the southwest of
main Fiji. Culturally conservative Rotuma with its 2000 people on
44 km2geographically
belongs to Polynesia, and enjoys
relative autonomy as a Fijian dependency.Fiji Television
reported on 21 September 2006 that the Fiji
Islands Maritime and Safety Administration (FIMSA), while reviewing its
outdated maritime charts, had discovered the possibility that more islands could
lie within Fiji's Exclusive Economic Zone.
More than half of Fiji's population lives on the island coasts, either in
Suva or in smaller urban centers. The interior is sparsely populated because of
its rough terrain.

History

Fiji, which had been inhabited since the second
millennium B.C., was explored by the Dutch and the
British in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1874, an offer of cession by the
Fijian chiefs was accepted, and Fiji was proclaimed a possession and dependency
of the British Crown. In the 1880s large-scale cultivation of sugarcane began.
Over the next 40 years, more than 60,000 indentured laborers from India were
brought to the island to work the plantations. By 1920, all indentured servitude
had ended. Racial conflict between Indians and the indigenous Fijians has been
central to the small island's history.

Fiji became independent on Oct. 10, 1970. In Oct.
1987, Brig. Gen. Sitiveni Rabuka staged a coup to prevent an Indian-dominated
coalition party from taking power. The military coup caused an exodus of
thousands of Fijians of Indian origin who suffered ethnic discrimination at the
hands of the government.

A new constitution, which took effect in July 1998,
provided for a multiracial cabinet and raised the prospect of a coalition
government. The previous constitution had guaranteed dominance to ethnic
Fijians. In 1999, Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister, Mahendra Chaudhry,
took office.

Prime Minister Is Deposed in Attempted Coup

Continuing ethnic tensions, partly fueled by economic
problems, plunged Fiji into a national nightmare in 2000. On May 19, a group of
armed soldiers entered Parliament and took three dozen people hostage, including
Prime Minister Chaudhry. George Speight, a part-Fijian businessman, led the
insurrection, and he demanded that the 1998 constitution be rewritten to allow
dominance of ethnic Fijians. The standoff lasted two months. In July 2000,
Speight and other coup leaders were taken into custody and charged with treason.
In Feb. 2002, Speight was sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted.

Although the coup was foiled, deposed prime minister
Chaudhry and his democratically elected government were not restored to power.
Instead, the military and the Great Council of Chiefs, a group of 50 traditional
Fijian leaders, appointed an interim government dominated by ethnic Fijians.
Elections were held in 2001, but no party achieved a majority. Interim prime
minister Laisenia Qarase's Fijian United Party won 31 of 71 seats, and Qarase
was sworn in as prime minister in September. His cabinet consisted entirely of
ethnic Fijians, but the supreme court declared Qarase's government
unconstitutional in 2003. In 2004, political infighting stalled the
implementation of a new multiethnic cabinet. Much to Prime Minister Qarase's
displeasure, Vice President Ratu Jope Seniloli and four other prominent figures
were convicted for their part in the 2000 coup and imprisoned in Aug. 2004. In
2005, Qarase backed a highly controversial bill that included an amnesty clause
for the 2000 coup leaders. The bill was supported by the Great Council of Chiefs
and the ethnic Fijian establishment but vehemently rejected by the opposition
(led by former prime minister Chaudhry, who was deposed in the coup) as well as
the military. Qarase was narrowly reelected in May 2006 for another five-year
term.

Dr. Senilagakali Is Installed As Prime Minister in Fiji's
Fourth Coup

In December Fiji's military commander, Commodore
Frank Bainimarama, announced he had assumed executive power, deposed Prime
Minister Qarase, and appointed Jona Senilagakali, a medical doctor, as interim
prime minister. It was the country's fourth coup since 1987. Tensions had built
up over several years between the military and Qarase over a corruption scandal
and issues regarding the 2000 coup—the military accused the prime minister of
excessive leniency toward those who had orchestrated that coup.

Bainimarama and the military grabbed more power in
April of 2009. Reacting to a ruling by Fiji's Court of Appeal, which stated that
the military government was illegally appointed after the 2006 coup and that
democratic elections should be held as soon as possible, Bainimarama refused to
step down and instead increased censorship of Fiji's media, expelled foreign
journalists, and announced that elections would not be held until 2014.
President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, believed to be a puppet of Bainimarama, announced
that he head repealed the Constitution. Iloilo retired in July and was replaced
by Ratu Epeli Nailatikau.

In September, the Commonwealth of Nations, an
association of Great Britain and its dependencies and former dependencies,
suspended Fiji, saying the country had failed to make progress toward returning
to a democracy

Following a coup in 2006, RatuEpeli Nailatikau became Fiji's president after a high court
ruled that the military leadership was unlawfully appointed. Fiji's local government, in
the form of city and town
councils, is supervised by the Ministry of Local Government and Urban
Development.
Fiji's main island is known as Viti Levu and it is from this that the name
"Fiji" is derived, though the common English pronunciation is based on that of
their island neighbours in Tonga. Its emergence can be described as follows:

Fijians first impressed themselves on European consciousness through the
writings of the members of the expeditions of Cook who met them in Tonga. They were described as
formidable warriors and ferocious cannibals, builders of the finest vessels in
the Pacific, but not great sailors. They inspired awe amongst the Tongans, and
all their Manufactures, especially bark cloth and clubs, were highly valued and
much in demand. They called their home Viti, but the Tongans called it Fisi, and
it was by this foreign pronunciation, Fiji, first promulgated by Captain James
Cook, that these islands are now known.

"Feejee", the Tonganized spelling of the English pronunciation, was used in
accounts and other writings until the late 19th century, by missionaries and
other travelers visiting Fiji.Association
football, or soccer, was traditionally a minor sport in Fiji, popular
largely amongst the Indo-Fijian community, but with international funding from
FIFA and sound local management over the
past decade, the sport has grown in popularity in the wider Fijian community. It
is now the second most-popular sport in Fiji after rugby (union 15's and union
7's).